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THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. XLIV 



the " extracted dominants" would ever return to the 

 original pigmentation of the dark negro parent is doubt- 

 ful; first, because neither ''white" nor black is a single 

 unit. Only in rare instances will the "extracted" blacks 

 be free of some white unit. We are dealing in this case 

 not with two unit characters only but perhaps with a 

 myriad of them. A chance combination of a lot of lower 

 grades will give "white" skin; a combination of "dark 

 units" free of any "white units" would give a dark 

 skin, but most of the offspring will show the various 

 intermediate grades due to diverse combinations of the 

 black and white units. As a rule, even in the first hybrid 

 generation, the darkest grade that is potential in the 

 protoplasm tends to show in the offspring; and so, as a 

 general rule, offspring are rarely darker than the darker 

 parent. 



To the foregoing quantitative data may be added 

 some qualitative evidence concerning inheritance of 

 skin color in black X white crosses. This testimony is 

 all that I have been able to collect of a definite nature 

 and it has all come from persons possessed of negro 

 blood. 



Professor W. E. DuBois, of Atlanta University, 

 Georgia, writes: 



Strictly speaking a mulatto is a child of a white person and a full- 

 blooded tieuro. . . . [Their] children are liable to vary greatly. . . . 

 They might be light in color or dark in color ... or freckled, with 

 red curly hair. 



Maj. R. R. Moton, of the Hampton (Va.) Normal and 

 Agricultural Institute, writes : 

 Mulatto parents very often have children that are practically white 



may have children that arc black or very dark brown. This is very 

 common. Indeed, I think it is more often that the children vary 

 than not. 



He cites three examples, all of families whose fathers 

 hold positions of trust in Hampton ; two in the institute. 

 A. "is a mulatto and so is his wife. Their first child was 

 a girl ... a distinct blond in hair and complexion. 



